


Bitter Cakes and Fresh Hot Tea

by DaniMeows



Series: Salt Mines [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien loses his temper, Adrien nearly gets akumatized, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fix It, Romance, Salt, Season/Series 03 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-05 09:53:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16808305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaniMeows/pseuds/DaniMeows
Summary: Marinette would go to a new school and how could people do anything but love her?He choked down a bitter laugh.‘How could they indeed,’ he thought mockingly of himself and his classmates.“My friend’s claimed that they loved me that I mattered to them and then less than two weeks later they acted like I was worth nothing. They made me feel like I was nothing…” she’d breathed into Chat's chest while sobbing.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Unbetaed as always.

There was no smell of cake wafting through the classroom. They looked towards her expectantly. It was Rose's birthday and Marinette always brought in the best treats for everyone's birthday.

Her hands were empty. She didn't even look up as she sat down next to him.

The class was stunned. They knew that she'd been quieter since Lila had returned last week. That she didn't speak as much.

Her smiles aren't real any longer. Adrien wanted to tell them.

By turning our glares on her, Marinette turned her backs on us.

By believing even the most blatant of Lila's bullshit without question and not even listening to her we've lost her.

By telling her not to expose Lila's lies and telling her that it didn't matter what Lila's lies had done to her. They'd lost her. No he had lost her.

The other's believed Lila's bullshit, he didn't but still remained silent and had discouraged her from standing up for herself.

He was the only one who knew she'd be moving school's soon. That today was her last day. And he only knew because Chat Noir had found a crying princess on her balcony a week ago.

He'd heard the whole story from her point of view. Two near akumatizations, a threat in the bathroom to take away all her friends, a boy she'd loved telling her that ignoring Lila's lies would be better than action, friends turning from her, feeling alone. How she no longer trusted her friends because not one of them had her back when she'd needed it. Not one of them had even listened to her.

She'd cried on his chest as he'd held her. Unaware that the boy behind the mask was crying too. The one she'd loved, she had said implying that she didn't any longer his brain helpfully reminded him.

He had once held the love of Marinette Dupain-Cheng but unknowing of the treasure he'd held he had taken it for granted.

He wanted to scream even as the class began to whisper and frown and bitch about the lack of cake.

Marinette didn't do nice things anymore. Not that she was unkind. But once they'd shown how little appreciation they had for the girl who tied herself in knots to make them happy, she'd stopped lavishing them with kind words or treats…

Or those bright smiles and bright blue eyes that made him feel warm inside like he hadn't since his mother had left him.

He loved her. He loved her. More than he loved Ladybug, he'd fallen in love with his friend.

He'd realized it to late and soon she'd be gone from his life.

Adrien rested his head on the desk and waited for class to start. His passivity and avoidance of conflict had cost him the friendship and love of someone truly special and there was nothing he could do about it, the time for action was over.

Marinette would go to a new school and how could people do anything but love her?

He choked down a bitter laugh.

‘How could they indeed,’ he thought mockingly of himself and his classmates.

“My friend’s claimed that they loved me that I mattered to them and then less than two weeks later they acted like I was worth nothing. They made me feel like I was nothing…” she’d breathed into his chest while sobbing.

If he confronted Marinette he’d have to let her know that he was Chat Noir, which could put her in terrible danger, not to mention be a huge betrayal of her trust possibly. Would she have told him of her pain if she’d known that he was also one of the people who had played a role in her pain?

“How could she? Marinette’s so selfish,” Alya whispered.

Even before he saw Marinette flinch and then exhale shakily, her delicate hand trembling slightly, he was up and out of his seat.

“That’s enough!” he shouted.

Everyone turned to him shocked, even Marinette.

He didn’t normally get angry, he didn’t normally stand up for others against this sort of abuse, but how he could consider himself a hero and a good friend if he didn’t stand up for what was right? 

“How could she? How dare she? How dare you? How dare all of us?” he found himself saying.

“Without even asking her we moved her seat to the back of the class even though it wasn’t her that needed to be moved it was Nino’s. Then we all turned and got angry at her when she questioned the fact that Jagged Stone, a man she’s met more than once and designed art for, owned a kitten when she knew he owned a crocodile… Then she was accused of not wanting Lila here when she’d said nothing of the sort. She’s our class president, she’s helped us time and time again. We are the ones who turned on her, who didn’t listen? So why should she bring us cakes or little things to make our birthdays special? Are we paying for the cakes? No. Marinette brings them out of the goodness and kindness of her heart. Why should she bring them when we’ve shown that we don’t value her.” he let all of this out and then let out a breath. He wasn’t done.

“You want selfish? How about a girl who sent her own best friend to the back of the room without any thought to sit with her boyfriend? Who refused to listen to her own  _ best friend _ for a week and now is throwing a hissy fit because Rose doesn’t have a birthday cake. You want selfish? Look in the damn mirror…”

He stopped because of the fluttering of wings. It didn’t surprise him to see the purple winged butterfly flying towards him but it did frighten him.

What did surprise him was Marinette shoving him out of the way. It shouldn’t have. She was always so kind, so forgiving.

“Adrien it’s okay,” she tried to soothe him.

He took a deep breath and tried to focus on her soft hands pressing against his cheeks, keeping him from facing the butterfly directly.

“It’s okay,” she continued to say.

Someone was shaking. Was it him? Was it her? Was it both?

“Thank you for being a good friend,” she added.

Her smile was real again and directed at him.

All he could focus on was her. That smile. Her hands on his cheek. Were his cheeks warm? Was he blushing? He was probably blushing. He barely noticed the butterfly flying away.

They went back to their seats and class began.

He ignored the whispers. Marinette considered him a good friend still. She might be leaving them behind after today but she considered him worthy of her friendship despite how awful he’d been at showing it.

Adrien didn’t know yet if he was still the boy she loved or if she’d gotten over him but if he was he hoped to prove himself worthy of it.

Standing up for her, defending her with words and not just shielding her with his body, that was a start.

Today he’d use his connections to prove some of Lila’s most egregious lies and figure out how to debunk as many of them as he could in the hopes that some of his classmates would finally begin to ask questions.

More importantly he’d figure out ways to show the girl he loved just how much he valued her and how special she truly was.

They’d probably ignore and isolate him too. But it didn’t matter. He knew how to deal with isolation and Marinette’s smile had been genuine for the first time in a week. It was worth it.

  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette's point of view of the same events as chapter one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg thank you all so much for your support! This fic will have at least two more chapters exploring some more aspects of this universe.
> 
> It's part of a series of super salty fics because this episode has really given my muse many salty ideas so the next one will be a different story about this episode. ^_^

**Marinette's point of view of the same events:**

“You can stay home if you want,” her mother reassured her.

Marinette was tempted. Her friends had turned on her.

Adrien knew Lila was lying but said her lies weren't harming anyone even though they were harming her.

To be fair she didn't tell him about the threats but to be honest she didn't trust anyone to believe her. 

Everyone had turned their backs on her on a dime, because of a liar telling the most blatantly obvious lies. Some of the ones who turned on her had been her friends her whole life.

Her heart had been broken by them all and part if her wanted to stay home on her last day of class at that school. But part of her wanted to walk in with her head held high to show that they hadn't broken her.

She had her parent's support, Tikki's support and Chat's support. She didn't need anyone else.

Her encounter with her partner outside the mask had been enlightening. Her friend had always been supportive and kind of her as Ladybug and friendly to her as Marinette…

But with the way her friends had suddenly turned on her and hadn’t seemed to care that she was hurting she’d been surprised that someone had cared enough to try and comfort her while she was crying.

He’d held her while she’d cried out everything that happened. He hadn’t judged her and he’d made her feel safe while she’d cried her heart out.

“My friend’s claimed that they loved me that I mattered to them and then less than two weeks later they acted like I was worth nothing. They made me feel like I was nothing…” she’d finally let spill out why she was so hurt.

More than Lila’s threats, more than them believing her lies what had hurt the most was the way everyone had immediately turned against her like she’d never been their friend.

He hadn’t shushed her or turned against her even after telling her about nearly being akumatized twice in one day.

Instead he’d complemented her for being strong enough to resist the dark pull of her negative emotions and focus on positive thoughts despite having such a  _ clawful _ day.

His pun had pulled the first honest smile from her face in a week.

Besides her parents, her partner was the only one who knew about her switching schools.

Her phone made it’s reminder noise that it was time to leave for school and Marinette got up and grabbed her things and walked to school after shouting a quick goodbye to her parents who were already hard at work dealing with the morning rush.

It was likely to be a rough day. She hadn’t stayed up last night baking a delicious cake for the class to share for Rose’s birthday. The first birthday since everyone had turned on her.

She knew that despite how they treated her they would expect her to spend her time baking and preparing something nice. Because Marinette was always nice. She always bent over backwards to please them. They probably expected her to apologize for everything.

They didn’t know that she was done. She was done being nice to people that didn’t deserve it. People who took her kindness for granted. 

If they wanted a cake for their birthdays, they could bake or buy a cake for it themselves, she thought as she walked to her seat.

She could hear the whispers start and the stairs as she walked cakeless up the stairs where she sat next to Adrien.

Did they really expect her to bake a cake when they’d treated her so badly? Apparently so.

She shrugged and began to get out her things for the day. She didn’t greet Adrien. She wasn’t sure had she felt about him anymore.

Once upon a time she would have been delighted to sit next to him.

But then she remembered him admitting that he knew Lila was lying, that her lies weren’t hurting anyone so she should just stay silent. Lila’s lies hurting her was apparently not enough to classify as hurting someone.

In a way it might have been a good thing that he was so passive. It had shown her that he wasn’t perfect. That he had flaws just like every other person and he’d fallen down from the pedestal she’d placed him on. She still liked him but his words and actions had made him question if he truly saw her as a friend.

If she’d known someone was lying and had seen those lies cause a classroom to turn against her friend she would have spoken up in defense of that person. Even if she’d then been treated to the same scorn at least her friend would have known that they weren’t alone.

But he’d known that Lila was lying and hadn’t spoken up in her defense. In fact if he hadn’t been trying to convince her to keep silent about Lila’s lies would he have let her know that he knew that Lila was lying as well?

And then coming up here to sit next to her after thanking her for staying silent. Was it just a pity thing? A hey now you aren’t all alone gesture?

Marinette lost her train of thoughts on Adrien and her crush that was being strangled by frustration when she heard Alya.

  
  


“How could she? Marinette’s so selfish,” Alya hissed.

It hurt. Why did it hurt so bad? She thought she’d accepted that Alya clearly wasn’t her friend, let alone her best friend like she’d thought. Between the accusations of jealousy, the sending her to sit alone, the not even sending her a text about the whole seat exchange so she would have been prepared, between the not even taking the time to see what or why her so called friend was upset about, and the utter lack of support, she’d truly thought that she’d accepted Alya was not a good friend.

One day Alya would also realize that she’d lost something she considered more valuable than her friend because the next time Rena Rouge was needed, Marinette wouldn’t bring her the miraculous. She had someone else in mind. Also when the time came to do interviews as Ladybug she would favor other interviewers over her “friend” where possible.

Her hands were shaking and she was repressing tears. She didn’t want to be made into a monster. She didn’t want the butterfly to come again because of these people who’d shown themselves to be false friends.

She tried to focus on meditating her pain away. The smell of home, her mother and father’s laughter and smiles, the time she baked her first cake by herself but had confused the salt and the sugar...

  
  
  


“That’s enough!” Adrien roared, distracting her from her focus.

  
  


“How could she? How dare she? How dare you? How dare all of us?” he added.

He was defending her when he hadn’t seemed to care much before, Marinette was confused.

“Without even asking her we moved her seat to the back of the class even though it wasn’t her that needed to be moved it was Nino. Then we all turned and got angry at her when she questioned the fact that Jagged Stone, a man she’s met more than once and designed art for, owned a kitten when she knew he owned a crocodile… Then she was accused of not wanting Lila here when she’d said nothing of the sort. She’s our class president, she’s helped us time and time again. We are the ones who turned on her, who didn’t listen? So why should she bring us cakes or little things to make our birthdays special? Are we paying for the cakes? No. Marinette brings them out of the goodness and kindness of her heart. Why should she bring them when we’ve shown that we don’t value her.” he let all of this out almost on one breath.

Marinette felt the urge to cry but not from sadness this time. From happy shock. A friend was defending her everything she’d wanted for two weeks. He was standing up for her.

His stance reminder her of her Kitty.

“You want selfish? How about a girl who sent her own best friend to the back of the room without any thought to sit with her boyfriend? Who refused to listen to her own  _ best friend _ for a week and now is throwing a hissy fit because Rose doesn’t have a birthday cake. You want selfish? Look in the damn mirror…” he continued to rant.

Marinette felt her heart in her throat as she saw the damn butterfly. One day she’d defeat Hawkmoth and on that day she’d deck him for weaponizing feelings and ruining one of her favorite animals. Butterflies used to be beautiful and a source of happiness for her.

  
  


Not him. Not her friend that had maybe taken a while to stand up on her behalf but had eventually stood up for her. Maybe it had taken him a while to speak out but he had.

She pushed him out the way a bit and turned to him in an attempt to soothe him.

“Adrien it’s okay,” she whispered as she put a hand on each cheek so that he was facing her and not the butterfly.

“It’s okay,” she continued to soothe as his eyes met hers.

She wouldn’t let him fall into the dark. 

He’d called her an everyday Ladybug once, while this everyday Ladybug would purify the darkness before it took hold.

Both of them were shaking. Fearing the butterfly whose wings were fluttering so threateningly as it kept trying to get to them even as he began to calm down.

  
  


“Thank you for being a good friend,” she added with a tremulous smile.

The butterfly flew away. Adrien had a slight blush on his cheeks as she removed her hands from him.

They went back to their seats and class began but Marinette felt lighter than she had in two weeks.

One of her friends had defended her. She wasn’t alone.

During lunch she’d tell him about switching schools that way he wasn’t blindsided on Monday when she didn’t show up for class, but at least she’d leave school with the knowledge that at least one of her friendships hadn’t died.

They made eye contact and Marinette blushed, ‘Oh no my crush is back,’ she thought.

  
  
  
  



	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's less salty with it's fluff portions but it builds up to next chapter's salt.
> 
> Thank you so much for your support on this story! I've never used twitter so I hope twitter tags format the same as instagram...

**Chapter 3**

Adrien barely paid any attention to class. His mind was reeling.

There had to be ways to prove at least enough of Lila’s lies that his classmates would begin asking questions.

It would be too late to make it up to Marinette who would be in a new school but he wanted them to know that they’d lost something truly special. The friendship of a truly amazing girl.

It delighted him to know that she considered him a friend still. He hadn’t lost her. He hoped that she’d tell him about leaving school and where she was going since he only knew as Chat Noir.

He enjoyed the visits he sometimes made to Marinette as Chat but he wanted to see her as Adrien. It wasn’t even because he’d realized recently that he’d fallen in love with her. It was because of the aura she projected. She was just so warm and so caring that she made him feel lighter and happier just by being near. Like his mother, she radiated this aura of happiness and light and he was drawn to it like a kitten was drawn to a red laser pointer or catnip.

She stuttered around him a lot as Adrien but she always made him smile and he’s really lucky to have her in his life.

It had taken him awhile to realize he was in love with her. Not just because of his feeling for Ladybug but also because it didn’t hit him until he was already in love.

It reminded him of the quote about love from one of his mother’s favorite movies, _Pride and Prejudice,_ about not being able to pinpoint the exact moment but being in the middle of being in love before he’d even realized he’d fallen in love.

It hadn’t even started to hit him that Marinette was more than just a friend and had been for a long time until she’d kissed his cheek to thank him for the picnic, afterwards he’d been in a daze. Touching his cheek, blushing and wondering what it meant. He’d been able to feel Plagg shaking with laughter in his shirt.

The next time he saw her had been slightly awkward and he’d been the one stammering at her for once. While his brain insisted that she was just a really good friend. His brain was an idiot sometimes.

It hadn’t fully sunk in until she’d told him of her day and that she was leaving _him_ while he was Chat. He hadn’t realized it until that night. He’d felt like he couldn’t breathe as she talked about leaving school. About how badly they’d hurt her.

“My friend’s claimed that they loved me that I mattered to them and then less than two weeks later they acted like I was worth nothing. They made me feel like I was nothing! The boy I was in love with, Adrien, knew Lila was a liar and did nothing. He said that her lies weren’t harming anyone and that it would do more harm than good to expose her. But I was hurt. I was nearly akumatized twice! She threatened me in the bathroom that she’d take my friends away from me! Even the only one who knew the truth. He doesn’t know about the near akumatization or the threats but he saw all my friends turn away from me, wasn’t that harm!” she was nearly screaming as she cried by the end of it as he held her close and protectively. Unaware that he was crying with her and the guilt and shame were eating him alive.

It had been harm. He’d been too much of an idiot to realize it.

I love her, he'd realized as he’d held her crying. **I love her and she’s leaving me.**

He’d spent the next week in a near daze, uncertain of what to do. More than once growing up when he’d tried to speak out or go against the path of least resistance he’d been punished by more time in his room alone and less time with people.

It had taught him that the way to peace was to not rock the boat. That rocking the boat just made life unpleasant. He didn’t know how to stand up for someone against emotional harm.

If it were physical harm he would just dive in front of her and save her but how do you protect against a manipulative girl who’d bent the entire class to her will in less than a day with blatent lies?

Then today had happened and he’d lost his temper and suddenly he could see Marinette’s point clear as day.

Just Lila’s lies had harmed almost every relationship Marinette had in the class. Before two weeks ago could he have imagined Ayla calling Marinette selfish and ripping her apart? Could he have imagined everyone isolating and being mean to Marinette?

Even without the threats that she’d made to Marinette, Lila had caused irreparable harm, Marinette would never trust Alya again even if Lila were exposed.

Would she trust him? She’d thanked him for being a friend which seemed to imply that he was forgiven.

He’d take action and he would fix this, like he should have done from the start. What would school have been like if he’d moved to the back to sit with Marinette and had made it clear that he knew Lila was lying. If they’d made a plan to expose her lies together?

It probably would have been a happier school day. Lila wouldn’t be spreading her poison, Marinette wouldn’t be leaving and his classmates wouldn’t have become almost unrecognizable to him overnight.

He hated to use the fact that he was famous model and that his dad was a famous designer, but for Marinette he would use it. He had millions of followers on instagram and twitter and he’d use every resource available if that’s what it took.

So first he needed to take a look at all of her lies in order and figure out which ones he could expose without knowing things he shouldn’t know as Adrien.

Her friendship with Ladybug. He saw Ladybug call her out as himself but he couldn’t use that one because there were no other witnesses besides Lila and if Lila told the truth well they wouldn’t be in this situation also hell would probably freeze over and his dad would suddenly be an involved parent. After all Marinette had told him that Alya insisted that there be multiple sources and that one person’s word wasn’t enough, why would his word be enough when Marinette’s wasn’t?

Saving Jagged Stone’s kitten on an airport runway. That one he could work with, without touching the tinnitus issue because he didn’t want to be accused of denying a disability even if which ear was the affected ear switched frequently. Best of all he could do it right now in class.

He logged onto his public twitter account the one he never used except for Gabriel business:

**A classmate claims to have rescued @therealjagged’s kitten before he realized he was allergic to cats and got Fang while the kitten was on an airport runway and was immortalized into song called Lila.**

**#whoaiftrue, #wherecanIfindthisong #Iaintsayingshealia...**

Between his followers and tagging Jagged’s name there was a good possibility that he could have some proof soon.

Fifteen minutes later not only was there a tweet declaring that not only had Jagged Stone never owned a kitten since he was allergic to cats and always had been but there were also a number of news articles. There was also him ranting that he’d never written any type of song like that.

A few of which may get him in trouble with his father since the headlines were Adrien Agreste calls out classmate… But still it was worth it. Even his father couldn’t find it shameful to be in headlines for calling out a liar for a friend? Could he? Even if his father sent him back to being homeschooled it’d be worth it.

Maybe he could transfer to whatever school Marinette did if she told him which one. Unless it was an all girls school?

He couldn’t help the Chat like smirk that graced his face at the way the headlines were already making international news. It must be a slow news day.

He could do the same thing for Prince Ali but he had a better plan. 

The lunch bell rang and it was time to put his plan into action.

“Adrien can I talk to you?” Marinette asked.

His plan would have to wait. Marinette wanted to talk and she was more important.

They walked to an empty classroom where they could talk privately, a classroom that he used frequently to transform in because there was never any classes in it.

“I…” she started stammering for a moment.

“I haven’t told anyone but I’m switching schools and today is my last day,” she said.

He knew that but it still hurt his heart to hear it. He wanted to beg her not to go, to reassure her that things would get better here at school. Beg her not to leave him.

But that would be a lie. In less than two weeks her friends had turned on her. They’d made her miserable. They’d made her doubt herself and wonder if she was worthless. Asking her not to go would be unfair.

“Where are you going?” he asked her not asking why. Adrien may only know all of her reasons as Chat but why she was leaving would have been blatantly obvious even if he didn’t have the insider information.

If he’d been the one in her shoes he might have switched schools too even if it meant being dragged kicking and screaming back into being homeschooled.

She named a very elite art school, a school that was a perfect fit for his creative friend. She’d only told Chat that there were several schools her family was considering and that she was waiting to find out if she was accepted to her first choice.

“That’s amazing!” he complemented, smiling widely but probably unable to hide his sorrow.

He was proud of her that she’d been accepted to the very picky and exclusive school but he was saddened that not only had she been driven to leave school because of their treatment of her but also that there was no way that he could transfer schools to be with her.

Much to his father’s eternal disappointment he didn’t have an artistic bone in his body even though he could look pretty in pictures.

“We’ll still see each other right? We won’t lose touch?” he asked his voice vulnerable and near tears.

“Of course we will!” Marinette exclaimed.

He hugged her then and she hugged back and they clung to each other for a few glorious minutes. Holding her without being in a leather superhero suit was different and yet in many ways the same, even without his enhanced senses she still smelled amazing.

Despite the fact that she was leaving him he couldn’t help but feel content.

School would be an emptier place without Marinette and colder. Much the way his home had become colder and emptier once his mother had left him.

His mother had just left him one day without promising to keep in touch and he’d never heard from her again. Marinette was leaving but had promised to keep in touch and had told him where she’d be. It wasn’t the same thing he reminded the part of him inside that feared abandonment.

They would see each other and often even if he had to arrange for his time with her to be put on his schedule. He could always frame it to Nathalie and his father that he was schmoozing and up and coming designer with a lot of talent to entice her into working for Gabriel in the future if he had to.

He would sacrifice going to school if he had to even if it would make it more difficult for him to transform into Chat Noir. He’d figure something out.

Once they broke from their hug, she invited him to lunch, which he accepted eagerly. He had no desire to sit in the cafeteria if Marinette was going home for lunch.

“Oh yeah,” she added, “I got a new phone number…”

She passed her phone over and they exchanged numbers again.

It was raining near the steps and he couldn’t help but smile. It had been raining when they’d first became friends, when he made it clear that he hadn’t put gum on her seat and had offered her his black umbrella.

It was fitting that it was raining when he’d finally made a stand and proved that he was her friend and reaffirmed their friendship and received her forgiveness.

“I’m sorry for hurting you before,” he began realizing that he’d yet to verbally apologize for his behaviors, “I’m used to not rocking the boat and it seemed like Lila’s lies were the sort of thing that would blow over soon once she told one lie to many and I didn’t realize that she was hurting you. If I had I would have done what I did today a lot sooner. I’m so sorry I was such a _coward._ ”

He looked at her making eye contact and making it clear that he meant every word.

“I got Jagged to publicly deny the kitten story on twitter about thirty minutes ago and it’s already making international news,” he said. Eyes widening slightly as he noted a familiar umbrella. She’d kept it…. He felt like making happy sighs or even purring at this new information.

“I’m sorry it took so long and for me to lose my temper before I stood up for you. It’ll never happen again, I promise. It’s not easy for me to be confrontational but for you I will,” he swore, meaning every word.

He would. Never again would he be passive when a friend was in emotional danger. He could be a better friend than he had been and he would be.

“Of course I forgive you,” Marinette exclaimed as they walked, squeezing his hand gently.

There was beat of time where it was just silent as they walked. Where he absorbed the beauty of being forgiven and felt the warmth of Marinette’s hands against his own.

Then she giggled. The sound was beautiful and her smile was nearly cat like.

“Did you really call her out on twitter?” she asked gleefully.

“I did,” he said.

Her laugh and smile then was nothing short of maniacal as they walked into her parent’s bakery and it only made him love her more.

He just hoped he could enjoy his lunch before Lila made more deals with butterflies and was akumatized yet again.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your love and support! Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 4: 

Much to Adrien’s surprise, not only was he able to enjoy lunch with Marinette and sit next to her in class without having to run off to fight akumas, since there were no attacks the rest of the class day since they had a test and everyone had to put away their phones. So the explosion of truth didn’t hit and wouldn’t hit until after school apparently.

That annoyed him a little bit because he wanted Marinette to see the classroom break into an explosion of noise and part of him felt that she deserved to see Lila have the entire class turn on her like they did Marinette. Then again what if they didn’t? What if they showed Lila the loyalty they didn’t show Marinette? That would probably crush her further which was the last thing he wanted.

Even if Marinette claimed that she’d washed her hands of her former friends he knew that part of her still cared deeply for them even if she’d probably never allow them close to her again, but maybe it was a good thing that the news apparently hadn’t traveled to the class yet.

He was actually surprised that glued to the phone and news as she was, Alya didn’t see the news story but then again she really seemed to believe in Lila and maybe didn’t want to believe the story was true? Not with the way she’d turned against her supposed best friend to support Lila.

Adrien did wonder what would happen when Alya learned the truth. Would she turn on Lila? Would she attempt to apologize to Marinette? What would happen when Marinette didn’t show up on Monday and she began to understand that her actions had driven Marinette from school? What would happen when Marinette didn’t bend over backwards to accept her apology.

He hoped Alya didn’t get akumatized again and most of all that she didn’t hurt Marinette.

Alya’s actions had hurt her most of all even before her words this morning and nothing Marinette had said had hinted towards any desire for reconciliation with her former friend. 

He could relate if he’d been in Marinette’s place and Nino had done what Alya did he wouldn’t forgive him easily, since his trust would have been broken if Nino had turned on him so quickly and easily. He didn’t even know if he could forgive Nino if the situations had been reversed. 

  
  


The bell signifying the end of school rang. Adrien couldn’t help the well of sadness within him as he got up from his seat and gathered his belongings and Marinette did the same. He’d miss her.

  
  
  


It saddened him even more to watch her leave school that day on bad terms with everyone else. Some of their classmates had been subdued since his temper explosion that morning but so far none of them had worked up the courage to apologize even though many of them had bowed their heads or looked at their class representative sadly, like they’d realized they were in the wrong and were working up the courage to admit it.

None of them knew that this would be the last chance to say their apologies to her face at school and that they’d have to brave the bakery. None of them knew that she’d changed her phone number in order to avoid them all or that he’d never give them her new number or let anyone know he had it.

After today, they’d have to brave the bakery in order to apologize to Marinette and her parents were both protective and angry at them all.

He’d felt their glares as he’d first walked in with Marinette until Marinette had made it clear that he had been forgiven in his part or rather lack of part in her classmate’s cruelties and that he’d proven himself a friend. Once they’d found out about his twitter proof and his defense of her that morning they were no longer frosty towards him and by the time lunch was over they were treating him like they’d done in the past. Friendly, warm, and loading him up with a lot of baked goodies.

They stood on the sidewalk outside of school and part of him had itched to tell her of his newly discovered feelings but he didn’t want to make their friendship awkward. What if she no longer liked him that way? He couldn’t work up the courage to tell her and at the moment he finally understood why she’d never told him of her feelings and why she’d suddenly looked like she’d been gathering all of her courage before kissing him on the cheek during the picnic.

“I’m going to miss you,” he said as he decided to repeat her courageous gesture and kiss her on the cheek.

He couldn’t help but blush as they parted but then again her cheeks were bright red as well. He got into the car thinking of how much he’d like to kiss her for real. He hoped that she understood his message.

If his father wasn’t angry at how he used his public twitter account he had a feeling that he could make arrangements to see Marinette soon since her design had impressed him during the hat contest and father didn’t dislike Marinette. Unlike how he felt about most of Adrien’s other classmates.

Maybe he could work up the courage to tell her then or maybe he’d wait and see if he could figure out if she still liked him. A voice in his head that sounded strangely like his kwami pointed out that he’d never figured out she’d liked him until she’d told his alter ego so his chances of noticing she still liked him were non existent. 

For now, however, piano practice and Chinese lessons awaited him and then he could think more about Marinette and how soft her cheek felt when he’d kissed it and whether or not her lips would feel softer if they were to kiss on the lips, or how pretty she looked when she blushed afterwards. He sighed and reminded himself that he had to concentrate on non Marinette related things.

  
  
  


The girl, who played havoc on his mind and ability to concentrate, was currently lying in her bed, face buried in her pillow making squeaking noises.

Today had been a strange day and Marinette’s brain and heart didn’t know how to cope. Adrien had kissed her! On the cheek but Adrien had kissed her! 

Was it just a friendly kiss? Or did he mean it the way she’d meant it when she’d kissed his cheek.

Did he like her the way she liked him? Or was it just meant to be a friendly goodbye?

For a moment she mourned the lack of girlfriends in her life these days, since she couldn’t consult them to see if they understood anymore than her what it could mean.

Sighing she hoped that maybe she’d get lucky and Chat Noir would show up to hang out tonight so she could ask him if he could translate boy language to French. On the other hand, since she was starting to develop a crush on her kitty it might not be ideal to ask him about other boys.

Her crush on her kitty wasn’t just because of the way he treated Ladybug (like her crush on Adrien had been, it felt like he had her on a very high pedestal that she’d tumble off of one day) but because of the way he treated Marinette. He was really sweet and caring.

It wasn’t the same as it had been before he wasn’t on such a high pedestal and there was another boy at about the same level but her crush was definitely back because Adrien had kissed her cheek.

Since she wasn’t dating either of them, she figured it was perfectly okay to like two boys and wonder if both boys liked her.

**Interlude: Kwamis at Play**

As he sat in the darkened classroom at midnight, enjoying a few delicious treats, Plagg reflected on how Adrien didn’t know that him and Tikki had prevented his classmates from finding out the truth just then so that their chosen ones could have a good rest of the day. 

Besides they had plans for the entire class and no one should ever get between an angry Tikki and her desire for vengeance. It took a long time to anger her and she was very forgiving but once you’d angered her you were doomed.

Very few people even among those who knew what kwamis were knew about how Plagg and Tikki could spread luck or choose not to spread luck. Yes, the Guardians knew that the Cat and Bug miraculous should go out together and to soulmates (romantic or platonic didn’t matter but they had to be compatible) but none of them seemed to fully understand the complexities of how they worked.

Once Marinette became the next guardian, if she chose to accept the position they’d probably let her and Adrien on the the little secret, maybe. Sometimes it was fun to keep secrets.

Right now they were choosing to remove Tikki’s good luck blessing from most of the class with Adrien being the only one fully exempt. A few of them, especially Lila and Alya, were getting a pretty nice dosage of Tikki’s favorite form of bad luck.

Unlike if Plagg straight up cursed them with bad luck where everything up to and including death from horrible painful illnesses, when Tikki used the combined form of their powers, it was more like Karma. 

Until Tikki was no longer angry with them (which could take a long while since Tikki was protective of her chosen ones) they’d get bad luck in return but more like minor things.

Broken umbrellas, losing objects, emotional distress, minor injuries… It really depended on how upset Tikki was at the time of cursing.

If the way the colors were flaring Tikki was pissed and it’d be a long time before she settled back down.

  
  


Plagg watched happily chewing on a delicious cheese danish as the empty classroom lit up like a light show. 

He offered her half of his danish and a macaroon for her to restore her energy and said his farewell.

Karma could be a bitch. Especially if just as both of their chosen were sitting next to one another in such a way that they could hang out together during the boring hours you hurt one of them to the point they decided to go away.

Especially if you angered gods of creation and destruction. They were immortal, sometimes vindictive and not afraid of being a little petty.


End file.
